NIIT to Deliver Next Gen Courses in Digital Transformation Within Indian Universities

India holds an important place in the global education industry with more than 1.4 million schools, over 227 million students enrolled and more than 36,000 higher education institutes. The sector is currently pegged at US$ 2-3 billion, and is expected to touch US$ 40 billion by 2017. However, the education sector in the country is afflicted with the issues of quality, consistency and employability. According to All India Council for Technical Education more than 60% of the engineers graduating from technical institutes across India remain unemployed. There is a huge variation in standards of technical colleges in the country, a majority of whom churn out graduates who are not employable.

While the higher education institutes are grappling with these issues, the skill sets required by the industry has undergone a change. IT now requires higher levels of leading-edge skills like cloud analytics, robotics, process automation, and so on, and engineering graduates of today do not always come qualified.

‘NIIT Inside’, a globally successful on-campus, customized education delivery model that is integrated with the institution’s bachelor degree programs, aims to bridge this gap. Through this model, NIIT provides its content, methodology, platform, technical know-how, pedagogy and also support university professors and lecturers by providing necessary training to deliver the latest curriculum. NIIT Inside is an effective solution that helps universities and higher education institutions to keep pace with changes in the global and local IT industry, and equip its students with the latest, in-demand skills that make them relevant in today’s work scenario. ‘NIIT Inside’ solutions will be delivered through Instructor-Led Training by subject matter expert / faculties at every college campus. Programs offered under the model will vary from modular courses like Java 8, Oracle 12C to skill enhancement courses to NIIT's flagship GNIIT program. After the completion of the course, the students will get a degree from the University/Government and also receive a certificate from NIIT. This model has been implemented successfully in more than 200 Universities and colleges across China, Vietnam and Nigeria.

Elaborating on the strategic move, Rahul Patwardhan, Chief Executive Officer, NIIT Ltd., said, “The Digital Transformation wave is upon the world and ‘go Digital’ has become the chant for those keen to survive and thrive in the emerging Digital age. The skills needed for professionals in the new Digital world, will be multi-dimensional and cross-disciplinary, across subjects and disciplines. To build these skills, India will require an innovative education agenda that will also encompass a revamp of the educational models, curricula and teaching-learning methodologies at all levels. Through our ‘NIIT Inside’ model we will work with educational institutes across India to help them modernize their curriculum and offer futuristic career programs to their students.”

According to a recent release by NASSCOM, the skills of the future would be Big Data Analytics, Cloud & Cybersecurity Services, IoT, Artificial Intelligence and many other Digital Technologies. A huge demand is foreseen for roles such as mobile app development, social media, data scientists & platform engineering. According to a McKinsey report on ‘Technology Jobs & the Future of Work’, digital technologies could contribute $550 billion to $ 1 trillion of economic impact per year in India by the year 2025. According to another renowned survey, 69% of IT leaders expect huge surge in the job market in the next 3 to 5 years due to digital technologies.

Prakash Menon, President, Global Retail Business, NIIT Ltd., said, “Over the years we have been offering job-ready training to students through NIIT centres across the country. Focus on NIIT Inside model in India reiterates our commitment to make futuristic career programs available and accessible to the students by working closely with colleges and universities.”

Sanjay Tickoo, Head, Emerging Markets & NIIT Inside Business in India, NIIT Ltd, said, "This is indeed a very significant initiative in India wherein we will work closely with the higher education institutions to promote the industry-academia interface by offering cutting-edge programs in Big Data, Java Enterprise Apps with DevOps and more to help create a talent pool aligned to the industry needs. We have successfully implemented this model in countries like China, Indonesia and Vietnam by partnering with 200 premier education institutions in these countries. We look forward to further strengthening this initiative in India by establishing partnership with Universities & colleges across the country to make India a digitally empowered nation. "

Keeping in view the way IT industry has evolved and is expected to grow in the future, NIIT has developed its own Digital Transformation programs under the DigiNxt series, offering futuristic programs to create an IT workforce aligned to the needs of the digital economy. These programs will be available to students under the NIIT Inside model. NIIT provides student courseware material to all its partners, spanning 200+ universities and higher education institutions. The courses are delivered as per the academic guidelines and discussion with its partners.